A phrase always comes to mind whenever I think about the psyche of those of us who think we have the technology to make the world a better place.

The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is a great example of this line of thinking. I am not in the camp of conspiracy theorists, though I do agree with some of the discourse.

Philanthropic aspirations, even the basic notion of what action is helpful seems crass and shameful. The intentions generally sound sincere though, so I want to give the benefit of the doubt.

Each of us is able to understand such a small fraction of what makes up our present reality, the long evolution of science and progress has proven to be a huge advantage. Hasn’t it? I think that is a tricky statement and I’d argue science is a more enormous liability, when used hastily, by wealthy conglomerates, without care and properly cautious roll-outs. People are dying! How can I be for the red tape of a properly functioning governing body? I know, I used to be for the vigilante justice of being in the right. I would’ve been all for using technology to help feed and protect the world from the chaos and horror that exists in the world.

One day I realized we are the chaos and horror that exists as equally, and arguably way, way more than they have ever been. Over the years these beliefs have evolved. At times I found myself completely agreeing with views held by the more conservative libertarian voices, now that my thoughts surrounding the way the world works have started to level out, I recognize more clearly the vast depths how difficult truth really is. As if it doesn’t exist in any tangible form.

Testing technology on tiny scales, moving at a tortoises pace. I believe that is the only way it’s ever going to be helpful. This archetype of being a savior is actually hurting people, animals, effectively the entire earth. I do think genuine community support and discourse can be helpful to raise awareness of what we can do to reverse the course of corporate-funded world-scale science projects. I really hope that notion spreads like wildfire and an over whelming majority of Americans figure out how to give most of their money to local, responsible companies and begin to cut the support of these terrible offenders. It’s time we had a real movement, to reevaluate our needs. I am as guilty as any person that doesn’t have a deciding corporate or government position.

How we are reacting to and dealing with Edward Snowden is a sad reminder of how far from sanity we are.

Just to make a point of the Gates Foundation again, it’s absolutely egregious, to attempt to make sense of what they are accomplishing is to wonder what Fukushima will look like in 5-20 years. Humans have made some extremely unfortunate decisions in the past, we are still in a panicked cleanup and yet we are still lighting fires way faster and more efficiently than we can put them out.

I hope we can begin to agree on a truly first-world way of existing. Learn to protect ourselves without crossing the lines we stand firmly on the wrong side of. Stop the drones, stop the bombings, allow chaos to engulf whatever local battles are in play and remove our dependence even if it means change our way of life. Slowly, start letting the vast majority of people in prisons out, setup a reasonable housing and healthcare system where we take care of people in a first-world manor, what they have now is in many ways worse than the third-world, they are effectively trapped, feed them and give them a reasonable place to sleep.

I think we have plenty of jobs in services which could grow a significant amount, but, the other vast majority needs to be in agriculture, we need to figure out how to pay a living wage for sustainable models of food supply, quickly.

That’s the part I get the most internally upset about, the things we have done to agriculture, I believe that is potentially the most dangerous thing that we have improved.
I believe a real first-world country should effectively all of it’s food supply and I’d go a hell of a lot further than that with regard to preperation and storage, we have great science and an effective way to share it.

These are my thoughts and hopes, I believe they have any chance of reality on my better days, I know how it is and have failed miserably, but, tomorrow is another day to make a small change in that direction. I hope it hits us like a wave and brings a renaissance before the new ice-age arrives.

Your milage may vary.